Japan’s government is preparing to take a more direct role in the clean-up effort at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, in an ack-nowledgment that Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the stricken plant’s operator, is struggling to solve a crisis over leaking contaminated water.

日本政府准备在福岛第一核电站(Fukushima Daiichi)的清理工作中扮演更直接的角色，承认该受损电站的运营方东京电力公司（Tepco，简称东电）难以解决污水泄漏危机。

Officials said yesterday that Tokyo would fund an unprecedented operation to freeze the ground around sensitive parts of the plant, in order to prevent groundwater from seeping in and mixing with dangerously irradiated coolant water.

官员们昨天表示，日本政府将为一项冷冻电站敏感部位周围土地的空前行动出资，以防地下水渗入并与具有危险辐射性的冷却水混合。

A toxic mix of runoff and coolant is flowing back out of the battered facility and into the ocean at a rate of about 300 tonnes a day, according to the environment ministry.

日本环境省表示，径流与冷却水的有毒混合物正以每日约300吨的速度从受损设施流入海洋。

“This is a critical issue of strong interest to the Japanese people,” Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, said after a meeting of the government’s accident-response team. “Instead of leaving everything to Tepco, we need to create a firm national strategy.”

日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)在政府召开核灾害对策本部会议后表示：“这是一个与日本人民休戚相关的关键问题。不能将所有事情都交给东京电力公司处理，我们需要建立坚定的国家战略。”

Tepco has been criticised for failing to stop the leaks and for its slowness in disclosing the problem, which experts had first identified months ago. The utility’s miscues have revived memories of its widely condemned response to the tsunami-induced meltdowns of three reactors at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011.

东电因为未能阻止泄漏和在披露问题时行动迟缓而受到批评，专家们最初发现泄漏问题是在几个月之前。东电的失误令人想起2011年海啸引发福岛第一核电站三座反应堆熔毁，当时它的应对措施广受谴责。

A perception that it failed to provide clear explanations, and reflexively played down the extent of the damage, led to promises of greater transparency and a revamped “safety culture” – pledges that are under fresh scrutiny as a result of the leaks.

当时外界认为东电未能提供清楚解释，而且条件反射般地淡化事件的严重程度，导致它随后承诺提高透明度、重建“安全文化”。泄漏事件令这些承诺受到新的关注。

“Tepco’s actions are reactive and slow,” Kiyoshi Takasaka, a member of a committee of nuclear experts advising Fukushima prefecture, told Japanese media yesterday.

“东电的动作既被动又迟缓，”为福岛县提供咨询的核专家委员会委员Kiyoshi Takasaka昨天向日本媒体表示。

Other members of the committee called Tepco’s handling of the water problem “haphazard” and complained that the utility lacked a convincing containment strategy.

委员会的其他委员称，东电对污水问题的处理“随意”，并抱怨称该公司缺乏令人信服的围堵战略。

It was unclear how much of a threat the leaks, equivalent to 1,500 oil drums a day, posed to humans or the environment. Tepco and experts have said the im-pact on areas beyond the plant’s vicinity was probably tiny, since radioactive particles would be quickly dispersed into statistically harmless concentrations.

尚不清楚日流量相当于1500油桶的核污水对人类或环境有何危害。东电和专家表示，由于放射粒子快速扩散，稀释至在统计学上无害的浓度，污水对电站周围以外区域的影响可能不大。

Still, the fact that Tepco has not been able to identify the source of the leaks, and the prospect that they could persist for months or years, has worried specialists and the public. The issue could influence a national debate on whether to allow the resumption of operations at dozens of other nuclear facilities that have been lying idle because of safety concerns.

但东电迄今未能查到泄漏源，以及泄漏可能持续数月或数年之久，仍令专家和公众感到担忧。泄漏问题可能影响全国辩论，其主题是：要不要重启数十座因为安全担忧而闲置的其它核设施？